Give your pet 8 months of Flea & Tick protection with Seresto collars

One of the first posts that I wrote on my blog 5+ years ago was about our dog Espn (back then he was still a puppy) and the time he came home with six ticks after a walk at a near by park.

Those six ticks ended up costing us $400+ between grooming, sprays for our dog, sprays for our home and miscellaneous other products. It was a nightmare!

Since then he has picked up more ticks, but not as bad as the first time. Usually he only has one every now and then. To cut down on the flea and tick exposure we don’t take him to dog parks or local parks. We keep him around our condo complex. We hate limiting where he goes but we cannot afford a similar situation where he picks up a lot of ticks.

With five cats at home, if Espn brings home a tick – or worse yet fleas – we’re doomed! I can’t imagine all our pets infected with fleas and/or ticks. With all our pets those nasty critters will think they died and went to heaven with all the meals they could get from our pets.

We’re used gels, sprays and collars to keep the fleas and ticks away. Knock on wood – we’ve never had any flea issues (thankfully) but ticks still present a problem.

Last year my husband woke up in the morning and found a tick on his chest UNDER his shirt. That means it was crawling around in bed with us. Gross!!!

My husband used my salad dressing dispenser to put the tick in so I could take it to get tested for Lymes (it was negative). The people at the college who tested it wanted to know if I wanted my salad dressing dispenser back. Ewwww!!! No way!

We live in a condo complex. We’re in the back of the complex. The board wants people to walk their dogs at the front of the complex (you would think they would want people in the back and out of sight). People do that but the never clean up after their dogs. Because they don’t clean up the landscapers won’t tend to the “dog walk” area. Because of that the grass and weeds are knee high – a perfect place for ticks to hide out waiting for an unsuspecting victim. Because of that I refuse to walk our dog there. I walk him close to our condo complex to limit this flea and tick exposure.

I see a lot of commercials on TV for flea and tick products. It’s hard to tell what works and what doesn’t work. I also worry about using harsh toxic chemicals around my pets and children.

I think the topical ones work the best, but they have to be applied monthly. I’m lucky if I remember to take my own medications daily, let alone something I need to give monthly. I would rather have something that I do once and have it last a long time, like several months at a time.

To help make flea and tick protection simple for pet owners Bayer launched Seresto – a breakthrough collar that offers eight months of effective flea and tick protection for both dogs and cats.

Seresto provides the performance you expect from a topical in an easy-to-use, convenient collar, that:

Eliminates the inconvenience of topicals and works just as effectively.

Only requires one application and lasts longer than just one month (eight months instead of one month).

Comes in one size for cats and two sizes for dogs at select veterinary clinics and pet specialty stores.

Seresto sent me a collar to review with our dog Espn.

The collar was super easy to put on. I was also able to take it off and put it back on when I took Espn to the groomer. I wasn’t sure how well the collar would work with Espn getting a bath so I just removed it before he left and put it back on when he got home. It was also easy to cut off the excess.

Scientifically speaking I cannot tell you how well the collar works. From a pet owner’s perspective – so far, so good. We’ve never had a flea problem (thankfully), only tick problems on occasion. So far we’ve seen no ticks on Espn. Either the collar is working or we’ve just been lucky. In any event I feel better knowing that Espn as protection instead of no protection at all. Another words “better safe than sorry”.

I questioned the company to make sure the collars were safe for my cats but also my children. Our cats love to play with Espn, and they bite at each other (playfully). I wanted to make sure the collar was safe enough in case one of the cats accidentally got it in their mouth or on their paws/fur.

As far as it being safe for cats, the answer is yes. The collars were tested extensively on both young and adult cats and dogs. Because it’s effective for an 8-month period, the ingredients are much less concentrated than that of a topical treatment. The collar’s controlled-release system therefore limits the amount of active ingredient available for absorption or oral ingestion by a cat.

As far as kids go, the ingredients in Seresto have been evaluated in long-term toxicological studies. They are modern parasiticides that have a high safety margin for mammals in general. Seresto was fully evaluated for use as indicated and is considered safe. Nevertheless, as with any pesticide product, do not allow small children to play with the collar (or the optional reflector clips) or to put them into their mouths.

Knowing that the collar is safe for all my pets, and I don’t have to remember to apply flea and tick prevention on a monthly basis, Seresto gets two thumbs up from me.

I’ve seen the collars sold online (PetSmart around $55 each, Petco around $60). You can also purchase them at local veterinary offices. There is a product locator on their website, SerestoPet.com.

In addition, on the site you can also…

Set a reminder and get a rebate on a Seresto collar ($20 rebate)

Join the PetParents online community.

Kimberly

*I received a free product sample in order to do this review. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.

Comments

Kimberly ~ I surely commend you for checking about your kids and cats before even putting the collar on Espn! Not many think of that when putting products on their pets. I had the same concern for the same reason with the drops I put on Zuzu. I have never had great luck with collars and I have tried many. I finally found a drop that has worked great so I would be hesitant to switch even though the price is right. However I have a neighbor who uses collars so I will pass the info on.

My sons Husky has ticks on alot being they live in a wooded area. So this would be a good one to try as sometimes hes afraid the drops may be harsh for the dog . I like that you can get a $20 rebate back too, that really cuts the price way down for us. thanks